19 Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Releases of May 2021

Genre: Coming-of-Age Contemporary Sci-Fi, mental health
Pubdate: 12th of May
Publisher: Encircle Publications

The premise of this book intrigued me. What happens when you arrive in a country, similar yet completely different from the one you knew after you’ve lost your parents and watched many others die, only to be treated by the people in that country as if you were a danger to them all. I was, however, a little bit let down with the execution of this idea.

The story is about Celestine, who departed earth in 1984 together with her parents as part of a secret mission into space. However, just months after their departure, a virus ravaged the ship’s crew, killing nearly everyone aboard. They return to earth, where Celestine becomes one of six survivors—her parents not being amongst them. Even though for them just two years have passed, almost forty years have passed on Earth, and Celestine comes back as a 17-year-old in the year 2022. In addition to the same teenage angst every other teenage girl faces, Celestine has to adjust to all the new technology and deal with the public who—in the aftermath of COVID—still fears that she’s contagious, even though the government says she’s not. She also has to deal with her survivor’s guilt, therapy, and fear of becoming sick.

What I liked about the book, apart from the premise, was that we get sucked into Celestine’s paranoia. We believe that there may be something bigger going on because that’s what Celestine believes. The story also contrasted the current worldview against the one Celestine grew up with during the ’70s and ’80s, which was apparently more optimistic.

There are some nice ideas in there, for instance, how weird it actually is that we have all these ‘friends’ on Facebook, who can see what we do, but none of these ideas are fully explored. I think the author wanted to put in a bit too much, so we actually barely scratch the surface.

I wasn’t feeling connected to the character, though. I feel the book let me down a bit because of that. Since so much of the story revolves around Celestine’s mental health and feelings, not feeling connected to her made that I ‘go along’ with her experiences. I felt more detached from it.

That said, it’s still an interesting story, and after you get through the beginning (which I felt dragged on for a bit too long), it does make you think about today’s society, health, and our treatment of refugees and immigrant (who I think face a lot of the same issues Celestine did; probably even more).

So, if that sounds like your cup of tea, make sure to check it out!